Former NBN Co chief
Mike Quigley
has urged new executive chairman
Ziggy Switkowski
to bypass planned reviews of the national broadband network, warning they will further delay construction with little gain.

In his first public appearance since leaving the government-owned company in September, Mr Quigley defended his four-year record leading Labor’s $37.4 billion fibre rollout and said he had “no doubt" the company would be more successful with bipartisan political support.

However, he blamed “deliberate efforts to impede the progress" due to attacks from the Coalition while in opposition that he said created obstacles for the project.

“If I can offer some advice to the new management of NBN Co I would say even with all the work that’s been done ... and the fact you have a fully functioning company at your disposal, you do not have a minute to lose," he said.

“Don’t waste your time being party to a rewriting of the FTTP business case using nonsensical assumptions aimed to prove a pre-determined outcome that will only further politicise the project and ultimately delay it."

His warnings came on the same day NBN Co submitted a draft strategic review setting out the current state of the project and recommending methods of completing the network.

A six-month cost-benefit analysis has also been commissioned by the federal government, to be undertaken by a panel that is expected to include vocal NBN critic, Henry Ergas.

Speaking to a event held by telecommunications body TelSoc on Monday night, where he was congratulated for his efforts by
Telstra
chief
David Thodey
, Mr Quigley talked up the project’s successes and highlighted key issues that caused delays in construction.

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He defended the project against recent criticisms from Communications Minister
Malcolm Turnbull
and Dr Switkowski, who told a Senate committee hearing on Friday that the cost of building the fibre network would quickly surpass previous estimates.

“Rates to build the fibre network based on existing design and architecture were rising, but those rate increases would not have produced a cost increase because we had identified and validated network and design changes that would offset those increases," Mr Quigley said.

He was referring to nearly $5 billion in savings, including smaller equipment and better network designs, that former chief operating officer Ralph Steffens identified in August to reduce the cost of the project and offset increases in labour.

Mr Quigley said the company had planned to introduce those changes from September as part of ongoing attempts to complete construction without increasing the capital cost of the project.

But he indicated they had been scotched by the changes in federal government and management at NBN Co.

He also rejected criticisms from Dr Switkowski that NBN Co’s previous assumptions were “heroic" and unmanageable.

“This wasn’t a project where hedging bets, sand-bagging and conservatism was going to work," Mr Quigley said. “The best way to ensure progress is to set ambitious goals and drive forward aggressively, uncovering and fixing issues every day while at the same time being cautious and prudent in your financial assumptions."

He argued NBN Co had “got most things right" despite slowdowns in network construction and difficulty connecting apartment buildings and new developments to the NBN.

But the now-retired telecommunications executive revealed that the last plans submitted to the government under his leadership in September saw the NBN’s completion date slip six months to December 2021.

The Coalition government’s policy would see its slimmed down version of the network completed in 2019, a timeline that Dr Switkowski has said is very demanding.